Sweet Country (1987)

January 23, 1987

FILM: 'SWEET COUNTRY'

By VINCENT CANBY

Published: January 23, 1987

LEAD: THE suffering of destitute, undernourished, ignorant and despairing peons amounts to nothing when compared to the ghastly emotional distress suffered by those liberal members of the haute bourgeoisie who care deeply about mankind.

THE suffering of destitute, undernourished, ignorant and despairing peons amounts to nothing when compared to the ghastly emotional distress suffered by those liberal members of the haute bourgeoisie who care deeply about mankind.

This is the astonishing (if unintended) message of Michael Cacoyannis's ''Sweet Country,'' a spongy indictment of the United States-approved military coup that, in 1973, overthrew Chile's legally elected Marxist president, Salvador Allende.

The film, opening today at the Sutton Theater, is set mostly in Chile on the day of - and in the months immediately after - the coup, which it recalls entirely through the delicate sensibilities of a bunch of well-dressed, well-heeled Chileans and Americans.

Mr. Cacoyannis, best-known for his film version of Nikos Kazantzakis's ''Zorba the Greek'' (1964), not only directed ''Sweet Country,'' but also wrote the screenplay, adapting it from the 1979 novel by Caroline Richards, an American who lived in Chile during and after the Allende administration.

I've not read the novel, but the movie should be about as welcome to Allende supporters as a C.A.R.E. package of fleece-lined mittens in Uganda.

The only representative of the lower orders to appear in ''Sweet Country'' is a despicable, illiterate, fascist military policeman, played by Randy Quaid in one of Mr. Cacoyannis's many casting coups. Mr. Quaid may have accepted this unlikely role in a noble effort to - as actors say -''stretch'' himself.

When, leering at the young woman he intends to rape, Mr. Quaid drawls, ''Mah name is Wan'' (meaning ''Juan''), the sound of talent snapping might be heard all the way from Santiago, Chile, to Houston, Tex.

At the center of the movie is Anna (Jane Alexander), a sweet, as yet politically dozy North American woman. Anna has come to Allende's Chile with her doctor-husband, Ben (John Cullum), with the vague intention of escaping ''the crassness, complacency and pace'' of life in the States. On the evening of the day of the coup, Anna begins to awaken. She knows that something is wrong. She's so upset that she has to force herself to sip the celebratory champagne being poured by her wealthy fascist neighbors.

Very quickly Ben and especially Anna find themselves up to their necks in the new leftist underground movement, largely through their friendship with the members of a patrician Chilean family who love justice more than life itself. They include the father (Jean-Pierre Aumont), the mother (Irene Papas) and the two beautiful daughters (Joanna Pettet and Carole Laure).

It isn't long before Anna has become an activist, meeting in a chic couturier's back room with other activists, including a murderous nun. The latter declines to drive the getaway car in an assassination plot by explaining that she thinks someone else would be more suitable, ''someone with a less dubious Vatican record than a left-wing nun.''

Sex plays a bigger role in this revolution than politics. In addition to Mr. Quaid's lechery, there also are a rape and a couple of meaningful extra-marital relationships, including Anna's with a French-Canadian intelligence agent, played by Franco Nero. Miss Laure, who takes off her clothes in virtually every film she makes, disrobes twice in ''Sweet Country,'' each time to dramatize some awful, new, fascist humiliation.

With the exception of Miss Pettet's, all of the performances are terrible, but they only match the material. You don't often hear dialogue of a flat-footedness to equal Mr. Cacoyannis's work here. Lines like ''Don't touch me. I'm dirty'' (after a rape), or Anna's anguished, ''It's all so unreal!'' (toward the end), demonstrate a reckless disregard for the funnybone.

If you remember the events of 1973 as they were happening, or even Costa-Gavras's sorrowful, dramatically riveting ''State of Seige,'' you know that this isn't exactly a subject guaranteed to make someone slap his knees in merriment. Yet this is what Mr. Cacoyannis achieves with ''Sweet Country,'' a movie that successfully trivializes everything it means to hold most dear and near.
BITTER FRUIT
SWEET COUNTRY, produced, written and directed by Michael Cacoyannis, based on the novel by Caroline Richards; director of photography, Andreas Bellis; edited by Mr. Cacoyannis and Dinos Katsourides; music by Stavros Xarhakos; released by Cinema Group. At Sutton, Third Avenue at 57th Street. Running time: 150 minutes. This film is rated R. Anna...Jane Alexander; Ben...John Cullum; Eva...Carole Laure; Paul...Franco Nero; Monica...Joanna Pettet; Juan...Randy Quaid; Mrs. Araya...Irene Papas; Mr. Araya...Jean-Pierre Aumont; Father Venegas...Pierre Vaneck.